Only Mary Roach would start a book with a story about diarrhea. I absolutely loved “Stiff,” so I had high expectations for “Gulp.” Also, I read “Stiff” over 6 six years ago, so her tone and style were a nice surprise all over again. I absolutely love the way she writes. It makes me laugh, makes me comfortable with uncomfortable, “taboo” subjects, and draws me in on the joke, making me a co-conspirator. That said, “Gulp” is a slight misfire in kind of a fundamental […]
This book reminded me that I really need to start watching Masters of Sex
3.5 stars I don’t read a whole lot of non-fiction. What little I do read is usually in the celebrity biography genre. But for my Eclectic Reader Challenge, I needed to read something qualifying as Micro history. I didn’t even know what that was, but the internet was very helpful in clearing up my confusion. Goodreads even has a lot of useful suggestions of what I could read. As Bonk had a fairly high average rating, and was very highly rated by several of my […]
Seriously, think about becoming a organ and tissue donor.
This year I have read three of Mary Roach’s books: Packing for Mars (spoiler – it’s great), Bonk (also very good), and now Stiff: The Curious Life of Human Cadavers. It was… it was good. But it wasn’t great. Maybe because it was Roach’s first book (before this one she was mostly a freelance writer for publications like GQ, Vogue, and Reader’s Digest) or maybe this topic just made me see some of the weaknesses in Roach’s style. Let’s discuss! While I was talking to […]
Shaking of the Sheets (and other euphemisms for sex)
Mary Roach is an author who has been on my radar for a while. I knew about her books, and her particular brand of letting-the-reader-in-on-the-joke writing about non-fiction which I learned when I dove into Packing for Mars earlier this year. So when Audible had a sale of Mary Roach’s books, I looked to see what I wanted to listen to next in her oeuvre (knowing that I already have a library request in for Stiff which is all about the life of cadavers). Bonk: […]
Clean, fun humor
So I love Mary Roach — I’ve read all of her other books, and her writing style, sense of humor and insatiable curiosity make for great reading. I was hoping that My Planet: Finding Humor in the Oddest Places would be like a behind the scenes of her research for her other books. It’s not, but it’s still a fun read. My Planet actually consists of essays written by Roach for Reader’s Digest in the early 2000s. So the topics tend to be a little mundane, and […]
Even Mary Roach can make floating turds and liquid food enticing
Did you ever wonder how an astronaut goes to the bathroom in space? Mary Roach will make you question why you’ve never pondered this before. With lines from her book like, “give me a napkin quick, there’s a turd floating in the air,” she’ll also give you the greatest appreciation of gravity you never anticipated… Roach is a master of taking a topic (like cadavers, sex, and in this case, space travel) and deconstructing it, showing its many facets…whether interesting, surprising, or even a bit […]
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